The invention relates to methods of adhesively bonding parts together and to devices for performing the method.
Adhesively bonding a metal leading edge on a turbine engine blade made of composite material is a technical operation that can be relatively complex. Such bonding may involve an operation of placing the layer of adhesive between the two substrates, and raising temperature, while also applying pressure to condition the adhesive layer correctly. It may also be necessary to maintain both the temperature and the pressure for a certain length of time that is sufficient to polymerize the material used in the adhesive layer.
Imposing a constant pressure together with a rise in temperature on an adhesive layer having a complex three-dimensional shape can be relatively difficult to achieve.
One solution for solving this problem is to make special molds in which the thickness of the adhesive layer is not constant. Nevertheless, the parts obtained by using that solution may fail to have satisfactory mechanical properties.
The same difficulties can be encountered when adhesively bonding other types of part, such as for example:                bonding a metal leading or trailing edge on an outlet guide vane;        bonding metal hollow outlet guide vanes; or        bonding metal reinforcing sectors on flanges of an axisymmetric casing made of composite material.        
Consequently, there exists a need to obtain novel methods of bonding parts together that enable a constant pressure to be imposed on the adhesive layer throughout the fabrication cycle.
There also exists a need to obtain novel methods of bonding parts together presenting reduced operating costs.
There also exists a need to obtain novel methods of bonding parts together enabling the thickness of the resulting adhesive layer to be controlled in satisfactory manner, and for example enabling an adhesive layer to be obtained that is of thickness that is as constant as possible.
There also exists a need to obtain novel methods of bonding parts together that enable the parts for bonding and the adhesive to be subjected to a temperature that is as uniform and as constant as possible.
There also exists a need to obtain novel devices specially adapted to performing these methods.